Stress can be a killer by triggering a sudden heart attack, which is often fatal. The fact is that the coronary arteries are not passive, rigid tubes. They are lined with muscle tissue that expand and contract, and that's how blood is pushed along. But powerful stress hormones can cause muscle tissue to contract abruptly, producing a spasm that cuts off blood to the heart. And when the heart is denied blood, a heart attack is the result. Research reveals a number of examples of stress-induced sudden cardiac death:

After 31 years of trying to bowl a 300 game, a 40-year-old man in Detroit collapsed and died of a massive heart attack about 15 minutes after finally achieving his goal.

A 56-year-old man collapsed and died of a heart attack while celebrating his first hole-in-one.

During the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany, on days of matches involving the German team, there was three times the number of heart attacks as on days they did not play.

1 | Left by Anon | Feb. 11, 2011 at 2:16pm